Only those who receive from God’s abundant provision of grace get to reign in life. One thing that can stop us from receiving is the lie that says we have to prove our mettle before God will bless us; we have to get cleaned up, straightened out, and dried out before can receive. This is a grace-killing doctrine of demons. It’s like telling sick people they have to get well before the doctor will see them.
Every blessing there is, whether health, deliverance, provision, or salvation, comes to us by grace and grace alone. To think we must work for the blessings of God is to try and buy that which is not for sale.
Those who don’t get this worry that those who do are pushing cheap grace. They fret that we are giving away the treasures of heaven without first requiring people to turn from sin, get baptized, confess, and do all the other things that supposedly describe the cost of discipleship. They don’t understand that grace comes first, that it is only by grace we can forgive the unforgiveable, love the unlovable, and do all the other things that followers of Christ do.
Beware cheap grace? There is no such thing. Grace is free or it’s not grace. Or rather grace is priceless and you can’t afford it.
Paul Ellis
The Gospel in Ten Words, KingsPress, 2012, 129-130.
GraceQuotes.com 
I am reading your book, “The Gospel in Ten Words” and I can’t tell you how much the revelation of God’s love and grace is being revealed to me. I’ve believed and known about the teaching of grace in the past, reading books by other grace preachers and have benefited greatly. Yet there’s something about your book, maybe your style of putting the words together that is touching my heart in a new way. I love the simplicity of your book and will be sharing it with others, thanks so much and God Bless you!
Thanks Gail, for your kind words. Simplicity is something I value greatly so I am encouraged to hear this.
AMEN AND AMEN!!!!!!!!
AMEN AND AMEN TO THAT BROTHER!
Oh yes — so, so true. Yes, the belief that we must earn grace in some way underlies most people’s thinking. There must be a moment when we suddenly realize grace is absolutely, positively, wonderfully…free. How humbling it is once we see it. But ironically, only the humbled heart WILL see it — “God gives grace to the humble.” Thanks Paul.